‘You are Awesome: How to Navigate Change, Wrestle with Failure, and Live an Intentional Life’ by Neil Pasricha

“You win some, you learn some.”Pasricha is the author of ‘The Book of Awesome‘ which I actually never read, but do remember seeing around a lot when it first came out…I guess I assumed Pasricha’s writing was inspirational fluff, but when I heard him speak on CBC about this next book, I realised I was wrong.

There are a lot of interesting and highly practical suggestions he makes about building resilience and dealing with failure. If you’re the type who dissolves because of a nasty email or judges yourself too harshly because you tried something and it didn’t work out, this book is for you. Pasricha warns against hiding failure or putting too much of a spotlight on it. He says we should actually even plan and budget for failure!

Now I can think of professions where failure-seeking may be rather less acceptable, for say a heart surgeon or an airline pilot, but perhaps the sentiment could be applied to creative endeavours in their leisure time!! And some of his examples were a bit far fetched and not really anything I would try (like one-night-stands) but I forgave him since he makes his points very well in every other regard. He definitely has some great things to say about navigating change and building resilience in a climate where there hasn’t been a lot of struggle or scarcity and oddly people seem to be very stressed. This trailer is really worth watching: